"The US astronomy budget is facing unprecedented cuts with potential closures of several facilities. A new report by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences says that available funding for ground-based astronomy could undershoot projected budgets by as much as 50%. The report recommends the closure – called “divestment” in the new document — of iconic facilities such as the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and the Green Bank Radio Telescope, as well as shutting down four different telescopes at the Kitt Peak Observatory by 2017."

The Kepler observations were supposed to be happening at a new receiver at Green Bank, so this is not good.
____________“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”--- Margaret Mead

Larry, running one of these probably costs a lot more than S@H does. Given the current global economic attitude pure science does not compete with the "what's in it for me?" way of thinking. No bucks for thinking big.
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Many older people are on Medicare which is the health plan for many older retirees. Medicare is not government assistance, It is a health plan that retirees have been paying into for most of their working life. The plan also has a monthly fee associated with it that must be paid by those participants.

I have a masters degree and beyond and am on medicare, I paid a percentage of my salary for many years into it. I am still paying a monthly fee of $300 for medicare Coverage. Also since I am still working I continue to pay that same percentage of my salary.

So don't call medicare welfare, for we have paid dearly for it and continue to do so.

Since we really do not know what we are looking for, the more eyes looking at different things will improve the incredibly small odds.

I do believe we know what we are looking for. The question is are we going about it with the most thorough and intelligent way. We are looking for spurious or directed electromagnetic evidence from another intelligent species in our Galaxy.

On a more scientific level we are combing electromagnetic receptions for signs of non random emissions that may contain some intelligence or a message that would indicate sentience.

- Spends more on the military than the rest of the top 15 spenders combined
- Spends about 4x more on the military than China, but with about 1/4 of the population, so around 16x as much per citizen
- The U.S. military expenditure is almost half of the entire world's
- This one, failed, project to develop software radios for the military wasted $6 billion so far. This is close to NASAs annual budget, and 3x the NSFs annual budget.

____________“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”--- Margaret Mead